5 Social Media Marketing Resolutions You Should Actually Keep

You’ve probably already made – and maybe even already broken – your 2016 New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’re trying to eat more fruits and veggies, to get to the gym a few days a week, or to pick up juggling (I don’t judge).

But have you thought about your social media resolutions yet? Between all of your new hobbies and activities, take some time to think about what you want to accomplish, or what you want your brand to accomplish, over the next year.

#1 Don’t Underestimate Social

I feel like we need to get this one out of the way first: social is not to be taken lightly. Social media advertising revenue this past year was $8.4 billion and it’s expected to keep climbing. If you’re not on the social bandwagon (you must’ve been living in a hole), you need to get on it in 2016; two-thirds of companies already have dedicated social media teams. Social media advertising through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and the like offer unparalleled opportunities to reach either wide or narrowly segmented audiences.

#2 Get on Board with Mobile

I know you have a smartphone – and so do more than half of US adults. In fact, about 10% of these people don’t even have regular broadband internet service, meaning that they only check social media and browse the internet on their cell phones. One of the most significant trends we’ll see as we head into 2016 is an even greater focus on mobile social media marketing and advertising. This year, make an effort to focus money, time and resources into creating content specifically for mobile viewing.

#3 Reliable, Meaningful Content Only

There’s almost nothing worse than clickbait. For those unaware, clickbait refers to a headline or image that draws you into clicking a link that really leads to a page of unrelated, useless advertisements. In other words, it’s spam. Clickbait is confusing (and loathed by many) and makes some social media users hesitant to click on sponsored content.

Be better than clickbait. Make it your personal mission to convince social media users that your content is worth reading. How should you do this? Create content that informs, offers new perspectives or creates a constructive conversation. Use reliable sources and suppress the urge to exaggerate facts and statistics to get your point across. Trust is important in the relationship between brands and their fans – so don’t ruin it with flash and trash.

#4 Use Your Tools

The job’s not done once you post your content – in fact, that’s just the first step. Social media marketing is a never ending cycle of creating content, posting content, and monitoring posted content. How do you monitor your posts, tweets, images and videos? Luckily, most prominent social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, offer their own analytics sections that you can use to track impressions, engagements and demographics about those who interact with your ads or posts. Make it your mission to use these tools to keep tabs on social media performance and make changes if necessary to leverage the full power of social.

#5 Set Social Goals

Everyone wants to be the best, to be the most popular, to rule the world. While there’s nothing wrong with maintaining these ambitions to inspire you, it’s important to create more attainable and shorter term goals to drive social media marketing efforts. To make it simple, some social media platforms have pre-determined ad goals that you can choose from such as increasing: website visits, conversions, application installs, engagements, views, page likes and event attendance. After you set a goal, create content that aligns with this goal. While shooting for the stars is admirable, shooting for 10,000 new website visits in 2016 is probably more constructive (and realistic).

The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to create plans and to set goals for the future. So, even if you can’t stay away from the fast food or you find yourself bailing on that brand new gym membership, make it a top priority to set some social media marketing resolutions and stick to them in 2016.